I've been doing business online since 1999. In that time, I've
looked at several different options for ways to sell things
online, and finally, in 2003, decided that I had wasted too much
time in doing things the old-fashioned way (having customers
call me with credit card numbers or mailing me a check), and
that I was long overdue to finally use an online shopping cart
as a way to sell products and services online.

But, there seemed to be so many options out there. Where should
I start?

The first thing I had to do was find a merchant card provider.
Since I do little face-to-face business, I chose a provider who
deals almost exclusively with professional coaches, consultants,
and speakers, Practice Pay Solutions.,
http://www.profcs.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=127926 I generally
advocate that you need to be processing at least $1000/month in
credit card charges to make a merchant account financially
viable for you, as you will be charged a setup fee, a percentage
per transaction fee, as well as a monthly statement fee.
Merchant Warehouse, www.merchantwarehouse.com, is another option
for your merchant account.

Practice Pay Solutions also provides a virtual terminal to
permit you to go in and manually enter transactions via an
online interface, as well as a secure payment gateway, which
allows your customer's credit card data to be secure as they
place orders. The other aspect I love about Practice Pay
Solutions is that fact that I can do a batch upload of
transactions. For example, I have a number of clients who pay
their fees monthly, outside of the shopping cart system. All I
have to do is maintain their information in an Excel
spreadsheet, and update it on a monthly basis (changing the
invoice description or amount, as applicable, for example), save
it as a tab delimited file and upload all of my charges at once.
This is a wonderful time-saving feature over manually inputting
10-15 charges each month.

After securing my merchant account, the hunt began for a
suitable shopping cart system. Several friends tried to interest
me in some open-source shopping carts, like OS Commerce,
www.oscommerce.com or ZenCart, www.zencart.com, but I found the
learning curve too steep for these carts. I like to be able to
go in and tinker with my products and not have to call a
programmer every time I make a change. Additionally, these carts
lacked some features that I had seen in other shopping carts.
Ultimately, I decided to go with Kickstart Shopping Cart,
http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/?pr=31&id=59401

Here are the money-making features you'll want in a shopping
cart:

1. Calculate shipping and tax. Make sure you have several
options for calculating basic shipping, including overnight
shipping.

2. Sell hard or electronic goods. If you sell physical items
that must be sent to a consumer as well as electronic items
(audio files, ebooks), your shopping cart should be able to
handle both types of products in the same transaction. In
addition, when your cart is delivering an electronic item, it
should generate a webpage for the downloadable file that
disappears within a certain time-frame so that the purchaser
doesn't provide the download link to 100 of his closest friends.

3. Special offer management. A full-fledged shopping cart should
be able to offer discounts for multiple purchases, a "free when
you buy 3" type of promotion, or other similar special offers.

4. Receipt and confirmation emails. An email confirmation of
purchase to the customer as well as a receipt for you as the
business owner to place in packages that have to be shipped are
a great convenience for both you and your customer.

5. Web-based administration page. An online interface should be
provided so that you can log in and add products, change prices,
generate special offers, etc. from anywhere in the world.

6. Affiliate program compatible. Instead of buying a separate
piece of software to create an affiliate program to help you
sell your goods and services, your shopping cart system should
have one that is integrated and permit you to manage it from
your web-based administration page.

7. Upsell modules. Good shopping carts will have the ability to
suggest related products to the shopper based on what they have
already purchased, or what's already in their checkout cart.

8. Coupons and discounts. The ability to offer coupons and
discounts can mean a tremendous boost in your sales. A good
shopping card will enable you to offer percentage and fixed
discounts when selling your products.

9. Multiple website capability. Shopping cart systems that can
handle products from a variety of websites (various one-page
sales websites you might have, for example) will save you tons
of money and aggravation.

10. Integrated autoresponders. Sequential autoresponders can be
your best online sales tool. Autoresponder systems can send
follow-up messages to your customers automatically to ensure
they're happy with their purchase and to tell them about special
offers and promotions you have for them. Or, you can use the
system for those who don't buy your product and offer them an
e-course, for example, that will give them a small taste of the
product you're selling.

To integrate all of the features that I mention above using
stand-alone applications could run into many thousand dollars. I
like the one-stop shopping concept, and want my software to be a
workhorse and fulfill as many functions as it can. Let the
features of your full-fledge shopping cart regularly earn you
money in your online business!

About the author:

Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed
professionals make more profit in less time online. To sign up
for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE ebook,
TurboCharge Your Productivity: 50 + Tools To Help You Automate
Your Business and Make More Profit in Less Time Online!, visit
her site at http://www.OnlineBizCoachingCompany.com .